Remembering Kate McDonald, CSJ – 1929-2024

Last month I had the great honor of delivering the "homily reflection" at the funeral mass for my dear friend Kathleen “Kate” McDonald, CSJ.

Kate, one of the famous McDonald sisters, four biological sisters who all joined the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet – St. Paul Province, died January 23. She was 94.

You may recall that Kate’s older sister, Rita McDonald, CSJ, died last October.

Following is my homily reflection for Kate. (NOTE: The service’s contemporary reading was an excerpt from Pope Francis’ World Youth Day 2013 homily, while the Gospel reading was Matthew 5: 1-11, also known as The Beatitudes.)

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Friends, it’s a great honor to stand before you and share this homily reflection.

As we all know, our dear Kate embodied many different roles throughout her long life. Along with the roles she played within her family of birth, she was, within the context of her CSJ life, an administrator, a caregiver, an educator, a resource-finder, a listener, an advocate, a justice-seeker, a music-maker, a party-goer, a friend.

She was also both a mystic and a prophet. . . . But more about this a little later.

For now, just let me say that what underpinned and infused all of Kate’s different roles, responsibilities, and sources of life and meaning was her passion and dedication to being a peacemaker.

In all kinds of ways, Kathleen McDonald lived and taught peace. This was her signature way of both following the nonviolent way of Jesus and working to build that “better world,” that “civilization of love,” of which Pope Francis so eloquently speaks.

One of the most visible ways in which Kate did this was by participating, for well over a decade, in two weekly peace vigils – both of which took place each Wednesday – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

It was at these vigils that I first got to know Kate. I was also a neighbor of hers, as in the late 1990s I lived not far from the 6th Street house in south Minneapolis that was home to Kate, her sister Rita, their fellow CSJ Marguerite, their dear friend Lang, and at least two feline companions.

It was a warm, welcoming home; and one that I recall being invited to many times to share a wonderfully home-cooked dinner. More often than not, our meal was followed by much laughter while watching one of the household’s favorite TV shows, Keeping Up Appearances.

I always appreciated Kate and her sisters’ love of humor, and how they used and expressed it to balance the more serious aspects of their lives. Speaking of which, the weekly Wednesday morning vigil that Kate and many of us here today participated in, took place outside the corporate headquarters of Alliant TechSystems, maker and seller of all kinds of weaponry, including landmines and cluster bombs.

The afternoon vigil was on the Lake St./Marshall Ave. Bridge. Its focus was on drawing attention to the far-too-many U.S. foreign policy decisions that resulted in violence and war.

It was on the Lake St. bridge one Wednesday afternoon that I took one of my favorite photos of Kate. We were there that day to protest the economic sanctions on Iraq. These sanctions were adversely impacting the civilian population, children especially.

“Sanctions Kill,” Kate’s sign boldly declared to the passing commuters. Some honked in agreement and support, others gave far less charitable indications of their differing views.

Regardless, Kate, as you can see in this photo, sits serenely on the guard wall separating the bridge’s traffic lanes from one of its pedestrian sidewalks. She’s using her sign to shield her face from the summer afternoon sun, and she has a book on her lap.

I think this image says much – not only about Kate’s dedication to truth-telling and peace-building, but also about the ways in which she prepared for and sustained herself in this work. The presence of the book is key in all of this. Let me explain why.

In Mike Hazard’s 2003 video documentary Four Sisters for Peace, which was made at around the same time I took this photo of her, Kate was asked how she “stayed so positive and committed, even when bad things happened in the world.” Kate responded by saying: “I do inspirational reading, things that feed my soul; like something, maybe, from the Bible, something from a good poem, or something from a peace activist-writer – Martin Luther King Jr., for instance. And I pray, meditate, and try to ground my soul in the morning; I take a little time to do that.”

Author Marianne Williamson writes that the cultivation of stillness is the best preparation for our response to the urgency of the times we’re living through. Kate clearly knew this as, through her daily inspirational reading, her meditating, and her cultivating of stillness and groundedness each morning, she was building inner peace.

This peace, Williamson reminds us, builds non-reactivity. In other words, it keeps us calm and focused in the midst of upheaval and hostility. I don’t know about you, but I hear these words and think immediately of Kate.

Williamson also reminds us that the inner peace we cultivate through times of intentional stillness builds courage, insight and intuition. It deepens the mind and expands the heart. And through us – through our thoughts and actions – this divinely-infused inner peace builds a new world.

Kate McDonald lived and breathed these spiritual truths. She knew that in order to be a peaceful presence and change-maker in the outer world, she needed to be a peaceful presence within herself. It was a balance she intentionally and lovingly cultivated; the fruits of which inspired many – myself included . . . and perhaps you as well.

This balance of the inner and the outer ensured that Kate was both a mystic and a prophet. The late South African theologian Albert Nolan once wrote that prophets are “people who speak out when others remain silent. They [constructively] criticize their own society, their own country, . . . their own religious institutions.” Sure sounds like our dear Kate.

Nolan lifts up Jesus as an example of a prophet. Yet he also reminds us that Jesus was a mystic as well, a person who longs to experience oneness with God. Because he was both mystic and prophet, Jesus, says Nolan, was grounded in a mystico-prophetic tradition that can be traced back to the prophets of the Old Testament.

Jesus’ life – and I contend Kate’s life – was a powerful example of prophesy and mysticism forming an inseparable whole. (And as Kate would say, “that’s ‘whole’ as in w.h.o.l.e.”)

Nolan highlights others who have similarly recognized that an inner life of stillness and prayer and an outer life of justice-making and peace-building are two sides of the same coin. These others include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Philip and Daniel Berrigan, and Archbishop Oscar Romero. Not surprisingly, it was the writings of these people that I remember Kate reading on a regular basis for her own spiritual nourishment . . . I also remember her sharing snippets of these writings with myself and others on a regular basis for our spiritual nourishment.

Indeed, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the book Kate was reading that day on the bridge was written by one of these people. Nor would it surprise me if she had shared something from this book in the circle we gathered in for a few minutes at the end of each of our Wednesday afternoon vigils. That was just Kate’s way.

And so with all these stories and memories in mind and in heart, I say –

Thank you and blessed are you, Kate, for being such a powerful and loving example of both mystic and prophet. You lived, taught and created peace. You stayed involved in the often messy realities of this world while mindfully and joyfully working to build all kinds of communities of love.

May our memories of you inspire us to do likewise. And like you, may we nourish our efforts to be and build peace in the world by cultivating inner peace.

May it be so.

– Michael Bayly
Our Lady of the Presentation Chapel
St. Paul, MN
February 12, 2024

Following are some images of Kate’s burial.

Related Off-site Link:
Minnesota Sisters Who Became Sisters Made a Habit of Fighting for Peace and Justice – Kathy Berdan (Pioneer Press, March 21, 2019).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering Rita McDonald, CSJ – 1922-2023
• Celebrating the “Sisters of Peace”
• The Inspiring Brigid McDonald
• Beginning the Process
• Making My Consociate Commitment
• The Vatican and U.S. Women Religious
• Three Winter Gatherings
• In Wintry Minnesota, An Australian Afternoon Tea
• Award-winning “Hellraisers” at It Again
• Alliant Action
• It Sure Was Cold!
• Walking Against Weapons

Images: Michael J. Bayly.